


speakeasy

by ndnickerson



Series: Red Label [27]
Category: Nancy Drew - Carolyn Keene
Genre: Date Night, F/M, Kid Fic, Married Couple, Mild S&M, Painplay, Rough Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-13
Updated: 2014-06-13
Packaged: 2018-02-04 12:37:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1779397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ndnickerson/pseuds/ndnickerson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clue Crew ficathon prompt "opportunities." Ned's disappointed when Nancy calls off their plans.</p>
            </blockquote>





	speakeasy

On Friday morning, when Nancy woke, she was alone in bed—and she was glad for it. She and Ned had mumbled halfhearted apologies to each other the night before, and they had slept in the same bed, but she was still angry.

Bess and Terry had invited Ellie over to have a sleepover with Olivia that night, and Padma was going to be there, too. In return, Bess had asked if Ned and Nancy could watch Hunter and Olivia the following weekend, so she and Terry could have some alone time. But Howie had tickets to a Bulls game the same weekend, and he had invited Ned and Nancy to accompany him and his wife a month ago. Nancy had agreed when Ned had asked, but when Bess had asked the favor, Nancy had told her yes—Howie could easily invite Mike and Jan to go along, for one. It wasn't like missing the game would be the end of the world.

But Ned had protested. He had been excited about the game for weeks, and he and Nancy hadn't been able to go out in a while...

But they couldn't leave all five of the children with Hannah and Nancy's father, even just during the game; it was too much. It wasn't the first Bulls game Ned had been invited to attend, and Nancy was sure it wouldn't be the last.

He'd had a rough few weeks at work, and Nancy understood that. He and Bill were working narcotics cases for a while, and those cases always left him discouraged and cynical. The few times she had been able to find an excuse to go to his work on her own work errands, just to see him for a few minutes, he had been out—at the lab, talking to the state's attorney, meeting with witnesses.

She missed him, and she had been looking forward to the game, too. Not to see the Bulls play—she enjoyed it, but when Ned wasn't on the court, her interest wasn't nearly so strong—but because it meant having fun with their friends and being with him without having to supervise their children. She missed that, too. And Ned seemed to think that her breaking this date was the end of the world, and his irritation had ignited her own.

Nancy checked the clock, and once she rose and put on her bathrobe, she knocked on Jamie's door, then opened it. "Morning, honey," she said.

Sadie was curled up with Jamie. The puppy immediately raised her head, then leaped out of Jamie's bed and headed for the stairs. Nancy heard the dog's claws sound against the hardwood downstairs. Jamie rubbed his eyes for a few seconds, then sat up. "I'm up," he said.

Next was Ellie. Her dark hair was in its usual morning tangle, and she grinned when Nancy woke her. "Mommy," she said, and Nancy picked her up with a soft groan. Ellie was five years old and delighted to be attending school with her brother. Her teacher had said that if her progress stayed as consistent over the next few weeks, she would be advanced to the next grade early, just as Jamie had been at her age.

"Hey, sweet girl," Nancy said, and kissed her temple before she put her down. "Don't forget that you need to pack for your sleepover at Olivia's tonight."

Ellie's dark eyes grew large. "I already did!" she said happily, pointing at her Minnie Mouse miniature wheeled suitcase.

"Tell me there are clothes in there, and not just ten Barbies."

Ellie giggled. "'Course, Mommy."

"And pajamas, too. _And_ your toothbrush."

Ellie promised she would finish packing before she left for school, and Nancy headed downstairs, a faint headache behind her eyes. She had already decided to check what Ellie had packed before Hannah came over.

Anna was already in her high chair at the table, and her blue eyes lit up when she saw Nancy. "Mama!" she cried, grinning.

"Hey baby girl," Nancy said, picking her up to give her a hug. Her skin was so soft when Nancy brushed a kiss against her pale hair. "You hungry?"

Breakfast was always chaotic at their house, and though she and Ned coordinated, it was easy to pretend like they were okay while maintaining an awkward silence; the children filled it, especially Ellie. She had been scared the first time she had stayed over at her cousin's house overnight, but she hadn't told Olivia; she had confided in her mother when she had returned home, though. The house had been strange at night and had made strange sounds in the dark, and Ellie had missed her parents and her siblings and Sadie, but in the morning Terry had made everyone scrambled eggs and Ellie had tried Canadian bacon for the first time, and so it hadn't been all bad.

She was bubbling with excitement about the sleepover, and Jamie was just as excited about a soccer day camp he and Sanjay were going to be attending all day Saturday. The parents had been told to have the kids there bright and early, at seven, so they could get an early start.

Once Hannah arrived—she usually took Ellie and Jamie to school, and Anna stayed at Nancy's father's house with her while her siblings were in class—Nancy checked Ellie's suitcase and made sure she at least had the essentials packed. Ellie had indeed packed a few dolls, and her favorite movie, _and_ a portable video game player that she could connect to Olivia's. If Olivia's sleepover was like Bess and George's had been when the three of them had been little, Nancy imagined that only the dolls might leave the suitcase. They would be too busy to play with anything else.

Once Nancy was dressed, she sighed and glanced at the clock, touching up her lipstick. Ned was about to leave for work, and if anything happened to him there, she didn't want them to part like this, having barely said a word to each other. She was still angry, though, and she descended the staircase carefully.

Ned was already dressed in his charcoal suit, a pale gray button-down underneath his jacket, a sea-blue tie knotted around his neck. She only glanced at him, but in that glance, she saw a little puffiness around his eyes, exhaustion in his own glance. So he hadn't slept well either.

"Heading out?"

Nancy nodded. "I'll see you later."

Their voices were almost flat, and Ned shook his head before he gave her a brief kiss on the cheek, one that left her feeling even more irritated, somehow. "See you later."

Nancy had dressed for work in a black sleeveless top decorated with an abstract white pattern, black pants, and low heels; for the first half of the day she was distracted and irritated still, and when she realized that their argument was to blame for her mood, she was even _more_ irritated by it. Ned was being ridiculous and she hated that she was so distracted by what was going on. It was a fight and he was _wrong_ and she shouldn't give in, she knew that, but she hated feeling this way toward him.

Just before lunch, she actually found herself looking up future games and the prices for tickets, and thinking of who she might call for a favor so she could persuade him to accept that compromise. She was startled when her cell phone vibrated over the surface of her desk, signaling a new text message. She swallowed before she picked it up to read it.

_I'm sorry, babe. I'm sorry I was a jerk last night._

Her shoulders were still tense for a few seconds, and then she relaxed, the corners of her lips turning up a little. _Me too_ , she texted back.

_:P I love you_

_Love you too._

After that, her mood brightened considerably. She decided to mention the tickets to him at dinner that night, as a kind of peace offering that she was pretty sure he would be happy to accept. Dinner... Friday night was usually leftovers night, and Nancy knew Jamie would probably be happy to take advantage of Ellie's absence to watch a movie with them, or do something else with his parents.

Nancy and Ned had both been only children, and Jamie's jealousy over his younger siblings and how much he wanted to spend uninterrupted time with his parents had always been strange to Nancy, but she understood. She had been jealous of the time her own father had spent at work, and she had loved spending time with him whenever he could spare it. She and Ned tried to do something with Jamie and Ellie one-on-one at least every week or two. When Nancy's father had suggested that they might get season theater tickets to a child-appropriate set of plays, that had seemed perfect to Nancy. Ellie was finally at an age where she would sit and watch a movie without becoming bored or wandering off, and Nancy was pretty sure she would enjoy watching a play with either her or Ned. Jamie might, too.

Granted, both Ellie and Jamie were jealous of Anna. Anna was the baby, and Nancy and Ned paid a lot of attention to her. She had started walking the week before, only a few steps at a time, but she was thrilled by it. Jamie had stacked up some empty water bottles on the floor in the den, and Anna and Sadie had knocked them over gleefully, Sadie's tail wagging in a blur, Anna's arms flailing as she giggled. She babbled in mostly nonsense, mimicking the cadence of the voices she heard around her, and she loved to tag along with her siblings when she could.

Anna liked to flip pages in the books Nancy and Ned read to her at bedtime, studying the pictures intently, her blue eyes wide when Nancy told her the ball was red or the butterfly was yellow. Ellie could read her own books, but they had begun reading her chapter books at night, answering when she asked what some of the words meant. Jamie had his own chapter books to read, the lamp glowing on his bedside table and Sadie curled up to his side.

Nancy couldn't believe her baby was already a year old. It was even harder to imagine that their son was eight years old. She could remember so vividly the way he had looked as a newborn, his wide eyes and toothless grins, how Ned had loved to cuddle him for a nap while they relaxed on the couch.

The rest of her day went better, and she was glad when her work was steady enough to keep her attention. She was surprised when she didn't hear from Ned again, but she didn't have much time to dwell on it. Her supervisor had passed along several cases for Nancy to investigate, and she was busy doing searches, making phone calls, and consulting with other people in her department to see if they could offer any insight.

At four-forty-five, Nancy's office phone emitted that peculiar ring that meant an inter-office call. "Nancy Nickerson," she answered, a little distracted as a page of search results continued to load.

"You have a visitor. Would you like me to send him on up?"

"Uh—yes." Evelyn wouldn't have suggested it if he didn't have the proper clearance.

Nancy was so engrossed in what she was searching that when she heard knuckles tap against her open door, she gasped sharply, then glanced up.

"Hey, beautiful."

"Hey!" Nancy grinned, pushing her chair back, and rose to greet her husband. "Didn't expect to see you here. Off early?"

"Not quite. Had an errand a few doors down. I didn't want to interrupt you if you were in the middle of something."

Nancy shook her head. "No. You're fine." They wrapped their arms around each other and Nancy closed her eyes, breathing him in. "I'm sorry too."

"No, I was being a jerk. I'm sorry, sweetheart." He kissed her cheek, and she took a step back. "And to make it up to you—can I take you out on a date tonight?"

Nancy raised her eyebrows, putting a hand on her hip. "You mean me and Jamie and Anna?"

He shook his head, his dark eyes glowing softly. "Sanjay's dad called and asked if Jamie could stay over at their house tonight, and he'd just take them both in the morning, since we took the boys to that scout meeting last month. I talked to Hannah, and she said if we can pick Anna up by noon tomorrow, she's fine with keeping her tonight. So it'll be just the two of us." He reached for her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"Oh," Nancy said, smiling. "God, it's been forever. What did you have in mind?"

He shrugged. "Anything you want. We could go to the movies, see who's playing live downtown, maybe go to a comedy club."

"Or stay home?"

He nodded. "I'll make dinner, if you want."

"Wow, you really are trying to make it up to me," she murmured, stepping forward with a grin and gently kissing his cheek. "If we had more time, I'd say maybe we should go up to the lake house, but maybe we could do that next weekend."

"Maybe. If the weather's nice." Ned glanced at his watch, then gave her another kiss on the cheek. "So, meet me back at home when you get off work, and we'll decide from there?"

Nancy nodded, then tilted her head. "Jamie did get all his clothes and gear for soccer, right?"

Ned nodded, chuckling. "Hannah took care of it."

It felt strange to come home to a totally quiet house. Nancy went upstairs to strip out of her work clothes, still wondering what she wanted to do. Part of her really wanted to stay home and relax with Ned. Most of her, though, wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to go out. She and Ned hadn't had a night off like this since before Anna had been born, and she didn't want to waste it.

In their closet, as she put her pumps away, she browsed her dresses. Many were appropriate for work or church; some were meant for beach trips. A few were formal, the kind she would wear to a work function or to one of Ned's work events, depending. Pursing her lips, she lifted one hanger and gazed at the dress. The tags were still on; she hadn't found a good opportunity to wear it yet. It had a portrait neckline and an empire waist, the fabric like pale jade shot through with gold. She liked that the long skirt flowed out from the empire waist; after three children, she was very aware that her body didn't look the same anymore, and she was more hesitant about wearing anything too form-fitting. She and Bess had found it during a shopping trip a few months earlier. It had been reduced in price thanks to a damaged zipper, and Hannah had obliged Nancy by replacing it.

She heard Ned coming in, and hung the dress up again, reaching for her shirt. "I'm home!" he called.

"Up here," she called back, tossing her shirt into the hamper and unbuttoning her pants. She had stripped down to her underwear by the time Ned came to their bedroom, and she was in the bathroom, wetting a washcloth so she could freshen up before she put on the dress.

"Mmm. Hey, beautiful," he murmured, coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her, kissing the side of her neck. She shivered at the feel of his embrace against bare skin; he had stripped out of his suit jacket, but that was all.

"Hey. Mind if we go out? Maybe somewhere nice?"

"Sounds great, honey."

Nancy paired the dress with her most comfortable coordinating sandals, then made a face at her hair before she settled on dressing it with a pair of pearl clips. That made her think of her mother's pearl necklace, and she added that.

When she stepped out of the bathroom and Ned saw her, the desire that warmed in his eyes made her smile. "You like?"

"Very much." He stood; he had swapped out his tie for one she had selected to coordinate with her own outfit, and he looked devastatingly handsome, the way he always had. "You look so beautiful, Nan. I don't think there's a restaurant nice enough in the city, for you."

Her smile widened into a grin. "Charmer."

Nancy was still just a little nervous about eating at a restaurant, but Ned called when they were in the car and arranged for them to get a table; when they arrived, after a short wait that gave them an opportunity to order drinks at the bar, they were seated at a round table near the back where they could both see the entrance. The restaurant itself was humming with activity. The tables were covered in luxurious thick white cloths, their napkins folded around beautiful silverware, and a tea candle flickered in a globe in the middle of their table.

"Mmm. Reminds me of Chez Louis, a little," Nancy admitted, after the hostess had handed them menus.

"We really should go back there. We have a lot of history there, after all."

Nancy smiled, gently bumping her shoulder against his. "We do," she said. Then she looked over, into Ned's eyes. "Oh my God. Do you realize that Jamie's half the age you were when we met?"

Ned shook his head. "Don't remind me. They're getting so big, Nan."

"They'll be going to prom. Taking dates to Chez Louis and the Pizza Spot and all the other places we used to go."

"And then they'll go to college."

Nancy shook her head, too. "Next weekend, let's go to the lake house," she said. "We'll take all the kids, and maybe if we ask nicely, George and Kevin will come to help us keep an eye on everyone. We can take a lot of pictures..."

Ned smiled. "Four against five is pretty good odds," he said. "Sounds good to me."

Their dinner was exquisite, even if it was a bit pricy. They ordered carpaccio to start, and Nancy ordered roasted duck breast, while Ned ordered the pan-seared prosciutto-wrapped halibut. They shared a warm apple compote over caramel gelato for dessert, and when Ned took his first bite, Nancy couldn't help laughing. "You look like you've just found your new girlfriend," she joked.

"Try it," Ned managed to groan. "Just try it. And if you're lucky, I'll let you have more than one bite."

The wine they ordered with dinner had left them pleasantly buzzed, and Nancy remembered that a nearby bar, set up like a speakeasy, had a decent dance floor and live music on the weekends. Ned looked it up on his phone and they walked there together, holding hands and keeping alert about everything around them. Once they found the place but before they went inside, Nancy called and checked in with Hannah, who said that Anna had just fallen asleep and was doing fine. She had been a little anxious when Hannah had told her that she would be sleeping over, but she was all right.

"And Ned said you two would be able to pick her up at noon?"

"Yes. Definitely. Eleven-fifty-nine, on the dot. Thank you so much, Hannah."

"You're welcome, honey. I'm glad you two were able to have some time together tonight."

Once they made it past the doorman and down the stairs, they found a dim golden grotto with a small, cluttered bar. A stage so unassuming Nancy almost didn't see it occupied one corner; a keyboard stand, mic stand, and amplifier were already set up, but the area was otherwise empty. The place was small enough to seem intimate, even though Nancy saw about thirty other patrons, gathered under pendant lamps casting a dim beam onto butcher-block tables, some marked in grids for checkers or chess. Ned went up to the bar, asking if she wanted anything, and she decided to try one drink; she didn't want to be stranded in Chicago, unable to drive Ned's car home.

After a chat with the bartender—a guy with spiky platinum-blond hair and a lip piercing who definitely cast a few appreciative glances at him—Ned returned to Nancy with a drink in each hand. The one he extended to her had a spike of ice in it, and was faintly amber. "Try it."

"What is it?" Nancy sniffed it, and detected some dark undertones.

"The guy talked really fast, but I think it involves brandy and fig and honey."

After her first sip, Nancy sighed, rolling her eyes a little in pleasure. "Looks like you've found _your_ new girlfriend," Ned teased her.

"God, it's good. What do you have?"

"It involves tequila and agave nectar and grapefruit. I think."

"Hmm. Sounds like I'll be the one driving."

Nancy had almost finished her drink, and was considering whether she wanted to violate her rule and order another, when a woman with skin the color of chocolate milk, her hair like a cloud around her heart-shaped face, brought a microphone up to the stand and cupped both hands around it, leaning forward. A guy wearing a pork-pie hat and a red silk shirt placed a portable keyboard on the stand and plugged it in, and the crowd's murmur dropped to a hush, then rose again in excitement when a short woman who barely looked large enough to manage the weight of the bass carried it to the stage.

Ned slipped his hand under Nancy's, lacing his fingers through hers as they listened to the first song. Nancy hadn't expected a portable keyboard to sound all that great, but in the grotto, the acoustics meant that it actually worked. The singer's voice had a low, sultry tone, almost the edge of a smoker's rasp, and when Nancy finished her drink and looked over at Ned, he was already looking back at her.

"Another one?"

"Mmm. I shouldn't."

Ned shrugged. "Then maybe a dance?"

It had been a while since they'd had an opportunity to dance in public—and the memory of one particular night was enough to make Nancy shiver under her dress. The space directly in front of the stage was unoccupied, and after a moment she gave him a little nod.

The first song was a moderate tempo, but the second was slow and smooth, and Nancy stepped close to Ned, slipping her arms over his shoulders, her fingers interlacing behind his neck. He slipped his arms around her too, his hands resting at the small of her back.

"It's been too long."

She smiled at him. "Since we've been able to do this somewhere other than the privacy of our own home?"

She took small steps, her body swaying with his, and she didn't care what anyone or anyone else around them was doing. "Yeah. I've just missed _this_ so much... I just freaked out because I'd been looking forward to being alone with you so much."

"Well, we weren't gonna be alone..."

He leaned down and gently brushed the tip of his nose against hers. "You know what I mean," he murmured, and his voice was a low, sexy growl that sent a shudder down her spine. He ducked in and gently kissed her earlobe. "You look unbelievably gorgeous tonight, babe. Enough that I can forgive not seeing the Bulls next weekend."

She closed her eyes at the feel of his breath against her neck. "Mmm. I can see if maybe we can get some tickets to a game later in the season," she suggested. "I know you were disappointed."

He leaned back to look into her eyes; his were alight. "If it works out," he said. "If it doesn't, that's okay."

Nancy stood up on her tiptoes to brush a kiss against his lips. "Sometimes you have a terrible poker face, Mr. Nickerson."

"Only around you, Mrs. Nickerson."

He was right. It really had been too long, and she loved feeling his arms around her. She loved the light she saw in his eyes when she dressed up for him this way, and it had been so long since she had felt totally desirable. It had been easier, early in their marriage, before Jamie had come along. Now Ellie might crawl into their bed in the middle of the night, made nervous by a thunderstorm, or a cry from Anna's crib might bring one of them running. Having sex took planning or the rare convenient opportunity now, and after the first time they had been interrupted while having sleepy morning sex, they had both been reluctant to try that again. It had been ages since they had even been able to shower together, because one of them needed to be watching the children at all times.

They were both so busy that at the end of the day, after dinner and helping with homework assignments and projects, after bathing Anna and making sure all teeth had been brushed and reading the girls to sleep, they were both exhausted. Nancy knew it would be better once Anna was more independent, but the thought of it broke her heart a little. She loved the wonder on Anna's face when she sang to her, the way she still wanted to cuddle and bring toys to her parents to play with. Nancy knew that wouldn't last forever.

She rested her ear against Ned's shoulder to keep from leaving traces of makeup on his clothes, sighing as the warmth of his body radiated against her. The song ended, a smattering of applause and a few catcalls rose in response, and the singer murmured something about the next song being very personal for her before it began.

They danced through that song and the next; the following one was up-tempo, and Ned twirled her a few times, a grin on his face as she laughed. A few other couples joined them, but they were younger, and they danced in an almost desultory way, as though they were painfully self-conscious and trying to pretend they weren't. Before they left, Ned left a tip in the jar at the edge of the stage, and they passed a group of laughing young ladies coming in when they were on the way out.

Nancy was definitely sober enough to drive, but the happy glow stayed with her even after the inebriation faded to almost nothing. When they were heading out of the city, Ned had her stop at a small all-night grocery store, and he bought two pints of the most decadent ice cream he could find.

Navigating through the streets of Mapleton—God, it had been a while since she had felt that strange doubled nostalgia, and it had begun when they had first moved into the house, but she had been coming over to see him from the time she was fifteen years old. The well-manicured lawns, sprinklers arcing over them in the summer heat, lovingly maintained by hired crews, the downtown district full of small shops and old-fashioned storefronts, and a hundred memories, a thousand. Their neighbors were approaching retirement age, if they hadn't already reached it; the long-entrenched ones remembered James and Edith Nickerson, and they had been glad to see the house used again after so long. Ned had come out to mow the grass every two weeks during the summers the house had stood vacant, without fail; the house and all the memories that it held for him had been his legacy, what he could pass down to their children, and he had been committed to it.

He had been reluctant to update anything in the house after they had moved in, until Nancy had pointed out that his own mother had updated the house; they had swapped out the path lights on the front lawn and in the back garden for solar-powered ones, had changed the downstairs carpets, had painted the children's bedrooms, but otherwise much of the house had stayed the same.

And that, she supposed, partially explained why she was _still_ a little hesitant about having sex anywhere other than the bedroom. In the house they had moved into when they were first married? Oh God, he had fucked her everywhere in that house. It seemed almost sacrilegious to fuck in the den, the blank eyes of Ellie's Barbie dolls accusing from their bin on the other side of the room.

When they walked into the house, Ned went to the refrigerator to put the ice cream away while Nancy checked her phone. Bess had texted to let her know that the girls were doing fine. She was smiling at it when she heard Ned step up behind her, then wrap his arms around her.

"So," he murmured. "Want to change so we can eat ice cream? Or do you want to work up an appetite first?"

"Hmm," she murmured, tilting her head back to rest it against his shoulder. She loved the feel of his hands on her. "How about I change into something a little more comfortable that will help us work up an appetite?"

"Sounds perfect," Ned murmured, kissing her earlobe before he released her.

She went up to their room—he went into the living room and turned on the television, catching up on the latest sports recaps—and took off her dress, then went to the bathroom to wash off her makeup. When she looked in the mirror and tried to be honest with herself about what she saw, she thought that she was still attractive. She looked different, older than her mother had been in the last photograph taken of her, but Nancy had slowly slimmed down after having Anna. She was still a little self-conscious about her figure, but three human beings had grown inside her. Of course she wasn't going to look the same.

She touched the stretch marks like red veins spiderwebbed over her sides, the pale indentations on her belly, the almost invisible scars left by the tubal ligation procedure soon after Anna's birth, then shook her head and went to her lingerie drawer.

When she walked downstairs a few minutes later, she already felt tender between her thighs. She hadn't worn a thong in a while, or anything like the chiffon ruffle-sleeve nightie; it had been so long, in fact, that a part of her wondered if Ned would have to stifle a chuckle when he saw her. She hadn't put a lot of effort into dressing for bed in a while, especially on nights that their children were home and might interrupt them, and the thought of any of their children seeing her in a sexy nightgown was beyond mortifying. Every time they'd had sex lately, it had been in the middle of an otherwise peaceful night, drowsy and comfortable and pretty unsurprising.

Ned didn't laugh when he saw her. His gaze rose from her ankles, up her still-shapely legs, to her gown and her face, her hair tumbled loose down her shoulders. "Wow," he murmured. "You look really nice, baby."

She smiled at him, her heart still pounding, an echoing pulse clenching between her thighs. "Thanks," she murmured. "I don't know... what you had in mind for tonight, but..."

She opened her palm, and the flush of arousal that spread over her was immediate. She had found the chained clamps in their drawer and pulled them out; it had to have been at least a year since the last time they had used them.

"Wow," he murmured again. "You're in the mood for that?"

She shrugged. "If you are," she told him, fidgeting a little before she sat down beside him on the couch. "It's just so rare that we have the house to ourselves."

"And you do scream a lot," he said, grinning before he reached up and gently stroked her cheek. "Hmm. You want me to put it on you?"

"Well, it _has_ been a while," she murmured. "Think you can remember how?"

"I think I'll figure it out."

He leaned forward and kissed her, slowly, and she breathed him in. She loved the smell of him, his cologne and soap and shampoo, all of it; she loved the warmth that lingered in the fabric of his shirt as his arm brushed against her shoulder. They had been together now for more than half her life, and his body was as familiar to her as her own, almost.

Then his hand touched her bare thigh, and she sighed as she broke the kiss. "I love you," he murmured. "Being with you, our children... I don't tell you often enough how incredibly grateful I am, to you, for being there for me through so much..."

She reached up and stroked his cheek. "And you gave me such beautiful babies," she told him. "I love you so much, Ned."

Their lips met again, and he slid an arm around her, the fingertips of his other hand drifting against her thigh. She broke the kiss again, her lashes fluttering down. "Upstairs," she whispered.

Ned turned off the television, then took her hand, reaching for the chained clamps with the other. As soon as they were upstairs and in their bedroom, Nancy took Ned's tie in her hand and backed toward the bed, leading him. Her lips turned up in a smile, and she had to tip her head back to look into his eyes, since she didn't even have the benefit of heels. His body was still just as solid and imposing as it had ever been; his shoulders were broad, his chest all hard muscle. He didn't work out quite as much as he had, but he and Jamie, and sometimes Jamie's friends too, had practiced every sport possible over the summer. Often both of them had come in soaked in sweat, sun-warmed, gulping down iced water as fast as they could.

She backed up until the backs of her legs brushed against the side of the mattress, and he stepped forward until his body was pressed against hers. "The most beautiful woman in the entire world," he murmured. "I love you more than anything."

"And I love you," she murmured, slipping her arms around him, holding him the way she had when they had been dancing. "My devastatingly gorgeous husband."

He slipped his hands under the hem of her gown, and she gazed into his eyes as he pushed her panties down, sending them sliding to her ankles. "Mmm. The only thing better than a thong..."

"Is no panties at all," she finished, smiling. He cupped her ass, squeezing gently, and when he slipped his knee between hers, she lost her balance and sat down on the bed, pulling him with her.

He pinned her under him, his lips finding hers, and she fumbled with the buttons as she worked her way down his shirt. With the knot of his tie loose and the ends dangling, she shivered at the feel of the silk fabric brushing against her skin. His knee was brushing her upper thigh through his pants, and when he fondled her breast, stroking her nipple through her nightgown, she arched under him. When they were together like this, her legs parted and all of her humming in anticipation, she felt like there was too much blood inside her, like she would lose her mind if her arousal became any more intense.

She unzipped his fly and he growled as he caught the hem of her gown in his hands and pushed it up, and she sat up to help him out, leaving her naked. His shirt was fully unbuttoned and gapped open to reveal his undershirt, and when they crashed together again, he kissed her hard as he pushed his pants down and she pushed his shirt down his shoulders, practically tearing his undershirt as she yanked it off.

He was only half-naked when he laid her back down again, and her eyes rolled back, her spine arching when he began to finger her, rubbing against her clit in teasing-light strokes. She was so wet, so tender, and when she heard the chain sound faintly as their weight shifted, she reached for it, her abs tensing as she draped it over her belly.

Ned chuckled, licking her nipple before he suckled against her breast, and that had been a long time, too. He didn't generally do that so much while she was nursing. Once her nipple was tight and firm, he reached for the chain and positioned the clamp over her nipple before he moved to the other. Nancy shivered, not so much at the feel of that clamp as in anticipation of the last.

He licked, stroked, and suckled against her other breast before he clamped that nipple, still shallowly fingering her, and Nancy opened her legs as wide as she could when he began to kiss his way down her belly. "Mmm," he murmured, kissing her inner thigh. "You ready, babe?"

"Yeah," she panted, and reached down to part the lips of her sex for him. He chuckled softly, rubbing his thumb over her tender, swollen clit a few times before he brought the clamp down.

"Ngh... ohhhhh," she moaned, her shoulders tensing as the clamp squeezed her clit. "Oh shit..."

"Okay? Too much, or you want a little more?"

"Ngh..." Nancy panted harshly, still holding herself open. "A little... more..."

She screamed breathlessly, tilting her head back so the crown was pressed against her pillow, as he obliged her. "Fuck fuck _fuck ohhhhh_ ," she swore, and she heard fabric move against fabric before Ned picked up the place where all three chains joined.

"Hang on," he said quickly. "Hang on, right there."

"We're—past—that," she forced out, opening her legs as wide as she could, and God, she could feel how wet she was. She could feel every pulse of her heartbeat as it echoed in her clit, and the pinch against her nipples was becoming even more arousing in tandem, too. She heard Ned rooting around in a drawer, and then he returned to her.

"Scream for me."

Instead of the warm head of her husband's cock, she felt the cool smooth head of a dildo against the entrance of her sex, and Ned trailed his fingertips over her abdomen, toying with the chain as he began to work it inside her.

"Fuck," she growled.

Ned chuckled. "If you insist," he murmured, sliding it out and working it back into her in a longer thrust. Then he picked up the chains again, and she licked her lips, her thighs spread wide and her feet pressing down on the bed to angle her hips up and make his fondling easier. She released a low, sensual moan, reaching up to wrap her fingers around the slats in the headboard.

"You look so fucking sexy right now, babe," Ned growled. "God, feeling you so wet for me..."

"Yeah," she moaned. "I'm so fucking wet, baby, and oh my _God_ , the clamps feel so fucking good..."

"You know they do," he said, and at the faintest tug she gasped. "Scream for me."

He worked the entire length of the dildo up inside her slick pussy, until she choked, and when he gave the chains attached to the clamps a quick, firm tug, she cried out loudly, gasping for breath, the pain so exquisite that she was almost blinded by it for a moment. He wrapped the chain around his hand, she could tell by the way it tugged, and then pulled firmly for a few seconds.

" _Ned!_ " she screamed, her spine arching hard, her shoulders tensing. " _FUCK!_ "

He released the chains and slid the dildo out of her, then thrust it slowly, working the entire length in and out of her a few times, before he gently tugged the chains again. She sobbed his name, and when he leaned over her, licking her throbbing nipple, then flicking the tip of his tongue over it, she gasped. He nuzzled against her breasts, licked her other nipple a few times, and her entire body shuddered and undulated as he gave the chains a series of short jerks. The dildo was tight and thick inside her, and she felt her inner muscles pulse against it just before he yanked again.

" _Fuck!_ " she screamed, and Ned groaned appreciatively as he moved between her thighs again, licking her clit with long rough swipes between jerks against the clamps. Nancy was lightheaded from her orgasm, gasping and sobbing, groaning and screaming with every jerk of his fist.

"Fuck me," she begged him, propping herself up on her elbows so she could tilt her head back even further, panting harshly as he kept licking her clit. "Oh fuck oh _fuck oh fuck holy fuck YES—"_

She choked again, and when she moved so she could plant her heels on the mattress and push her hips up a little more, she rutted against the dildo as he fucked her with it, her pussy tingling as he jerked the clamps again. She felt the rhythm in it, the way he began to make each tug just a little longer, and she sobbed when he gave the dildo a few long last thrusts, then slid it out of her.

She cried out when he slipped his fingers inside her instead, and then his fingertips began to tap against her g-spot in the same rhythm he was jerking the chain—

"Fuck _fuck fuck FUCK_!" she screamed, her hips trembling, her throat raw from her screams. She groaned desperately, unable to catch her breath, unable to feel or think or comprehend anything beyond what he was doing to her and the pain of it and the awful, exquisite pleasure, the need to bear down against him—

"That's right," Ned growled, as she came with an incredible gush of arousal. "Yeah, baby. I love it when that pussy is wet as hell for me. Look at me when I fuck you, Nan."

Weak and trembling, Nancy kept her hips up in the air as her elbows slid from beneath her, letting her collapse to her pillow, staring up at him prone and waiting. "Fuck me," she panted, and gasped when he pulled the chains again. "Oh God oh fuck _ohhhhhhhhhhhhh yeah..._ "

Ned closed his eyes as he moved the tip of his cock just inside her entrance, then looked down at her again. "Fuuuuck," he groaned. "Oh _shit_ , you feel so good..."

She angled her hips with another gasp, and he moved deeper inside her, where she was still so terribly sensitive. He worked her back up with the chains, until she was screaming, and when he was buried fully inside her, he leaned down and kissed her, the taste of her sex still on his tongue.

Then he sat down on the mattress, pulling her with him, and she was panting as she lowered himself onto his cock and then began to ride him. She tossed her hair, whimpering when the weight of the chains tugged her sensitive nipples, and then Ned's thumb brushed against her clit.

She cried out, and when Ned took the clamp off her left nipple and suckled against it while she rode him, she cupped the back of his head and kept riding him, rising until he was barely inside her before she thrust down again, focusing all her energy on clenching tight around him at the deepest point in every thrust. He unclamped her other nipple and suckled against it then, gently fondling the first, and she was shuddering when he took the chain and jerked slightly.

She arched, and without even thinking about it she began to ride him frantically, her breasts bouncing, moaning desperately. He tugged at the chain again and she screamed, her eyes rolling back again.

"Come," he panted, and when he squeezed her tender nipple gently, she sobbed. "Come, babe."

Then he gave the chain another prolonged tug and she arched, screaming so high it was almost soundless, her inner flesh pulsing against his cock. She held out as long as she could, her nails digging into his back, and she nipped at him when they began to slow down, his cock still buried deep between her legs.

He tipped his chin down and they kissed as he slipped his hand between their hips, working the last clamp off by feel alone, and she panted when it was no longer tight against her. He dropped the chain onto the floor and held her, still kissing her, and she wrapped her arms around him in return, completely spent and trembling, her every nerve still tingling and sensitized.

"Mmm," Ned groaned, then pressed a soft kiss against her lips. "I never think it can be as hot as it is..."

"The only time it's ever been more intense than that was the time you were using the cock ring," she murmured. "Oh holy _fuck_ , that night I thought you'd never stop."

He nuzzled against her cheek, and when he gently laid her down, she let out a long sigh. The join of her thighs and her upper thighs were slick with her arousal, her legs trembling with aftershocks, and she couldn't summon the strength to move; when he brought a cloth to clean her up, she groaned as she wiped the slick trace from her skin, then gave it back to him.

Nancy's eyes were closed, and she could hear Ned's footsteps as he returned to the bed, but then he stopped without her feeling the mattress dip from his weight. She blinked a few times, gazing at him curiously.

"Ice cream?"

"Mmm," she murmured in approval, and stretched. "I hope you got something that'll taste good when I lick it off those washboard abs of yours."

Ned chuckled. "Nothing like a little salty to go with the sweet," he said, wiggling his eyebrows, and Nancy shook her head with her own grin. "And when we're both sticky, we can take a nice long hot shower together..."

"Mmm," she moaned. "Get back here before I fall asleep, Nickerson, and we'll see what we can do."


End file.
